Zach’s 180 mixed build

[zbryant91]

Starting up a new build. Started purchasing things in February when we moved into a new house so there’s quite a few things to post about. Starters, I have a 5 gallon that was at work until COVID. And a 60 gallon cube that I’ve had for about 5 years.


Ordered a 180 gallon eurobraced tank from glass cages. 72x24x24. Pre drilled for a shadow overflow and 2 -1” returns. First time ordering a tank and 1st time having a drilled tank. So still figuring things out but overall starting out well.

Stand came from framing tech. 72x24x36 aluminum extrusion. Saw several others on here liked their stuff so gave it a try. Haven’t done any panels yet but they are coming soon.



sump is a synergy reef sk60. Build quality seems good. Still figuring out my flow rate.

3 xr30 gen 5’s. Sk5000 filter roller, 2 vectra s1 return pumps, 2 mp40s(for now).

I have a pretty big suite of Neptune gear on my 60 gallon that will be transferred over.

Water closet behind the tank with 2x 55 gallon rectangle containers for my mixing station and auto water changes. Have 2 versa dosing pumps for that. Ran water lines through the walls for the rodi and awc. This is prior to painting and plumbing.


got the tank about a week ago and have since moved it into place with the help of 4 friends. Filled it up and broke down my 5 gallon tank and moved my clown and tiny blue fish(don’t know the name of it…haha). Used a large biobrick from my 60 to hopefully avoid a cycle.

aquascape was made from Marco rock. Not really a negative scape but I’m happy with the layout for now. First time not having a pile of rock.




Don’t really have a set stock list of coral or fish but definitely plan to fill it. Have a mystery wrasse, royal gamma and fire fish from the 60 that will come. Hoping to pick up a couple tangs soon.

loads of plumbing. Took 3-4 orders to get it all. Still haven’t done the extra ball valves for my manifold but it won’t be hard. Left a space for it and have the parts ready.



Did a leak test in the garage 1st.



set the lights to run 5% for 3 hours a day while I’m away for the week and we’ll see what kind of mess I have

mostly have don’t well with hammers, torches, Zoas, and other lps for the last few years and plan to have several sps higher up in the tank then just see where the tank goes

think that mostly sums up the last few months. Will have to get some shots of the water closet and the mixing station once I get back. Been lots of work but I have high hopes for this being a great and semi-easy to maintain tank.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Ohh that is a thing of beauty

 

[zbryant91]

Guess a few other things worth mentioning, we had this house built so I had Ethernet run behind the tank and there’s 3 outlets, 1 of which is on a dedicated circuit. Haven’t quite worked out all the wiring and how I plan to split it up, but there’s options.
Also got a matching 10 gallon ato from reef synergy. It’ll go in the water closet rather than the stand because of space.

Have 2 2’x3’ sheets of pvc board that I plan on making a control board out of. Which will go in the stand.
So plenty more photos to come. After I get back from vacation.

 

[zbryant91]

Completely broke down my old tanks and moved all the frags over. Also got a few fish. Current stock list: pair of frostbite clowns, blue tang, scopes tang, diamond goby, yellow watchman goby, royal gramma, & the little blue fish that I have no idea what is. Also have a fire shrimp hiding somewhere. Picked up another 20 snails.

Running the lights at like 15% to hopefully keep the uglies down.

setup the auto water change schedule today. Starting with 6 liters a day. We’ll see how that does and go from there.

Also added a second fleece roller because I wasn’t a fan out how the water was flowing with the single.

Also got a avast kalk stirrer setup. Using my dos to run it for now. Still figuring out how much I need per day.

still working on mounting equipment but most of it is actually tidied up now. Just need another photo.

 

[zbryant91]

Finally took some photos of my water closet behind the tank. 2 - 55 gallon roto mold containers - 10 gallon ATO that I ordered with the sump - 2 FMM modules for auto refilling my ATO, leak sensors and empty sensors on both the 55 gallon containers, and my versa pumps for the auto water change. And the RODI setup. It's not very easy to get a good photo in there, but its working out so far. Still have to clean up the wires in here, but was more interested in making sure everything worked first.

Also got my controller board mounted. still have some adjusting to do as I'm going to try to squeeze my trident on the back side so it's not on the floor.

And I added a manifold. Not really sure what all I'll use it for, but it's there just in case. I attached a hose to 1 barb and used it just to blow around the detritus and sandy stuff in the sump. But would be easy to add my gfo/carbon reactor if needed.

 

[revhtree]

Nice build!

 

[Zach B]

Very nice! Following

 

[zbryant91]

Nice build!

Very nice! Following

Thank you both!

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have a Glass Cages 150 (two of them, actually), and almost went with Framing Tech stands, so I appreciate all the hard work that goes into a set up like yours-- including a mixing station. You have done a beautiful job! "Approved!" Lol

PS: Always love a good sturdy manifold!

 

[New&no clue]

Jumping on board. I just upgraded my 75 gallons system to a 180 mixed reef, so hopefully, I can pick up some tricks from you. I went with roller mats as well in my sump. I've been debating doing an AWC for some time. Did you do that on your old system, or just starting it now?

 

[zbryant91]

I have a Glass Cages 150 (two of them, actually), and almost went with Framing Tech stands, so I appreciate all the hard work that goes into a set up like yours-- including a mixing station. You have done a beautiful job! "Approved!" Lol

PS: Always love a good sturdy manifold!

Thanks! Yeah, we looked at the glasscages stands and my wife didn't care for the look, so I went aluminum and we're going to just build panels. Way happier with this solution than building my own wood stand too. haha.

 

[zbryant91]

Jumping on board. I just upgraded my 75 gallons system to a 180 mixed reef, so hopefully, I can pick up some tricks from you. I went with roller mats as well in my sump. I've been debating doing an AWC for some time. Did you do that on your old system, or just starting it now?

Just starting it now. My old system came from our old house and there was no way to get water to the tank from my mixing bins. Just happened to work out at the new house. So far I've got it setup to do 6 liters a day over a 5 hour period. seems to be working, but no way to really tell on nutrients as I'm only a few days in.

Hoping that the roller mats keep things much more in check as I increase the fish load.

 

[Joe Glass Cages]

Thanks! Yeah, we looked at the glasscages stands and my wife didn't care for the look, so I went aluminum and we're going to just build panels. Way happier with this solution than building my own wood stand too. haha.

thanks for the feedback. Here to support.

 

[zbryant91]

Tank update: Roughly 2 months in since filling the tank

For the most part things have just been running on auto pilot as intended. I dropped my AWC to do 1 gallon a day because I don't really see a benefit in running more right now and my nitrates are still somewhere between 0-1. Phosphates are sitting around 0.02-0.03.

I added a male lyretail anthia a week or so ago and he's doing great. I am struggling to find females locally and online other than liveaquaria. And I don't have a QT system so I'm a little hesitant to order from them.

All the other fish are doing well and are loving the reef jerky food from avast. I'm also really liking their auto feeder.

Also ordered a par meter so I can dial in the lights. I've been slowly ramping them up. Running the AB+ program and I'm up to ~30% or so.

I don't think I lost any coral moving tanks which was a surprise. I even have quite a bit of coralline already. All the frags on the rack need to be moved to the rock, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I ordered a battlebox from battle corals and it is supposed to come in tomorrow.

 

[New&no clue]

I ordered my anthias from TSM. They QT all fish.

 

[zbryant91]

I ordered my anthias from TSM. They QT all fish.

I've been checking their site everyday haha. They only have 1 male available for preorder and no females. They would definitely be my 1st pick to buy from online, but I haven't seen them in stock in like a month and I wasn't ready for them when they were.

Also, how many anthias do you have? I was leaning towards 4 female with the 1 male.

 

[New&no clue]

I've been checking their site everyday haha. They only have 1 male available for preorder and no females. They would definitely be my 1st pick to buy from online, but I haven't seen them in stock in like a month and I wasn't ready for them when they were.

Also, how many anthias do you have? I was leaning towards 4 female with the 1 male.

I have 8 females and 1 male. So far so good with that number. However, I’ve only had them a couple months so I’m not sure of long term success.

 

[zbryant91]

I have 8 females and 1 male. So far so good with that number. However, I’ve only had them a couple months so I’m not sure of long term success.

Nice. maybe I should do more than 4.. Guess it'll probably depend more on how many I can find

 

[zbryant91]

Received my 1st battlebox yesterday. looks like I have 2 that aren't going to make it but am very happy with the look and size of the rest of them.

Also update on my parameters:
Salinity 1.026
PH: 8.00-8.15
Alk: 8.3
Mag: 1420
Cal: 440
Phosphates: 0.03
Nitrates: 2.1

Also played with my trident a bit a few weeks ago. I cut open a old reagent bottle and reset the height of my straws. I found that they were a bit too close to the bottom and was causing some odd results sometimes. Also did my calibration with tank water based on my test kits rather than the calibration fluid and the results are so much more consistent. Before I found the mag and cal readings to be pretty useless and unreliable. I'm guessing this is more so because the calibration fluid numbers were much lower than my tank runs.

 

[zbryant91]

Had a bit of a up and down week with fish. I purchased 6 lyre tails from petco last weekend. Received them on Tuesday and put them in a QT tank. First time I’ve ever done one and 3 died within a couple hours. 2 the next day and the last the day after. Had an ammonia monitor in the tank and still have no idea why they died.

on a positive note, I went to my LFS today and got a melanorus wrasse and 1 lyretail. Added both directly to my tank rather than the QT tank As I’m unsure what killed the others.